A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Chicago street gang member to 10 years behind bars for stealing more than 100 newly minted guns from a Norfolk Southern yard, saying such thefts have contributed to “an epidemic of violence” in the city.

Before sentencing, a prosecutor also described what he said was a little known but active criminal “subculture” where thieves, such as Andrew Shelton, regularly target trains in Chicago, the nation’s No. 1 rail hub.

Shelton and seven other gang members slipped with relative ease into the South Side yard on April 12, 2015, to steal the guns, which were en route from New Hampshire’s Sturm, Ruger & Co. weapons maker to Gunarama Wholesale in Spokane.

Shelton, who Tharp called “a serial train robber,” has been convicted six times before for stealing bikes, shoes and other items from trains. But Tharp said pilfering and selling new guns, which are coveted by criminals because they’re harder to trace, was in a different league.

“It’s different than selling sneakers out of the back of a truck,” Tharp said. “This crime … is part of what has created an epidemic of violence in this city.”

Shelton, 43, and the father of 10 children, should have known better than anyone how guns shatter lives because he lost his dad to gun violence and has been shot 12 times himself, Judge John Tharp told the hearing in Chicago. Some of Shelton’s fellow thieves had also been shot and their relatives killed.

Andrew Shelton, Elgin Lipscomb and Alexander Peebles are charged in the theft of more than 100 guns from a train stopped in a Norfolk Southern rail yard on Chicago's South Side in April 2015. (Cook County Sheriff's Department)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police in Midtown Manhattan were searching Saturday for two bike-riding thieves who have been stealing cellphones right out of people’s hands.

As CBS2’s Ali Bauman reported, police released surveillance photos of the suspects, who are believed to be behind at least eight thefts in the past month. Among the documented incidents were the following:

• Around 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, a 38-year-old woman was at Sixth Avenue and 41st Street when a suspect on a bicycle snatched her iPhone.

• Around 1:30 a.m. Monday, April 3, a man was on Sixth Avenue at 42nd Street when suspects on bicycles ripped away his iPhone.

• Around 1:35 a.m. Monday, April 3, a 41-year-old man was standing in front of 145 W. 44th St. when suspects on bicycles ripped away his iPhone.

• Around 9:55 p.m. Saturday, April 8, a 36-year-old man was on Sixth Avenue between 45th and 46th streets when a suspect on a bicycle snatched his Samsung cellphone.

• Around 10:15 p.m. Saturday, April 8, a 22-year-old man was standing near Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, when a suspect on bicycles took his iPhone.

• Around 12:15 a.m. Monday, April 10, a 22-year-old woman was on Broadway at 35th Street when suspects on bicycles took her iPhone.

• Around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15, a 45-year-old woman was standing at Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street when suspects on bicycles ripped away her iPhone.

• Around 10:45 p.m. Saturday, April 15, a 22-year-old man was in front of 5 E. 42nd St. in his car with the window down, when a suspect on a bicycle took his cellphone.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (KTRK) --Authorities have arrested the suspect in a recent $200,000 Galleria watch heist and believe that crime was just part of a massive theft operation.

According to investigators, blood matching that of 41-year-old Demond Finister, a registered sex offender living in Harris County, was found at a JCPenney in San Antonio that was recently burglarized.

In addition to the Galleria watch heist, investigators believe Finister was involved in the theft of $4 million of jewelry from other retailers in Houston, San Antonio, Louisiana, Arizona and Colorado.